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Description
Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez (7th District) speaks about the Puerto Rican Debt Crisis during the Stated Meeting of Philadelphia City Council on April 21, 2016.
www.phlcouncil.com
A
That's
one
with
you:
Kyoto
Sanchez,
Thank
You.
Mr.
president,
tomorrow
and
Saturday
I
will
be
traveling
to
New
York
City
to
join
a
historic
convening
of
Puerto
Rican
elected
officials
and
leaders
from
across
the
country.
The
reason
why
there
is
a
humanitarian
crisis
in
Puerto,
Rico,
Puerto
Rico
has
fate,
faces
a
73
billion
dollar
deficit,
a
deficit
created
by
United
States
Tax
Policy,
a
deficit
created
by
rules
of
financial
mismanagement
on
policies
by
the
United
States
of
America
I
know.
Many
of
my
colleagues
have
seen
commercials
about
don't
bail,
Puerto
Rico
out
and
its
bankruptcy.
A
I
must
remind
everyone
that
in
this
council
chamber,
we
debated
the
issue
of
hedge
funds
and
swaps
at
the
school
district.
As
a
city,
we
divested
from
some
of
these
bad
investment
policies.
These
hedge
fund
predators,
who
bought
debt
at
twenty
cents
and
want
to
collect
a
dollar,
need
to
be
held
off
they're
the
ones
funding
and
men
in
many
cases,
buying
congress's
in
actions
and
we've
seen
that
time
and
time
again
in
this
chamber.
How
does
that
impact
Philadelphia?
A
How
does
it
impact
Pennsylvania?
How
does
it
impact
the
rest
of
the
country?
There
are
10,000
Puerto
Ricans
leaving
the
island
every
month
and
they
will
end
up
in
our
schools
and
they
will
end
up
in
our
communities.
As
we
said
to
Congress
several
months
ago,
when
I
joined
a
thousand
were
to
Regan's
and
lobbying
Congress
and
many
of
our
own
folks
in
the
local
delegation,
senator
Casey
and
others.
A
As
we
lobbied
around,
we
said
you
either
going
to
help
Porto
Rico
deal
with
their
issues
in
Puerto,
Rico
or
you're,
going
to
deal
with
it
in
your
own
backyards.
We
need
to
stop
this
and
we
need
bankruptcy.
Protection,
Puerto,
Rico,
have
bankruptcy
protection
until
1985
and
one
of
those
late-night
cumbersome
financial
d.
Someone
took
out
our
ability
to
do
that.
A
It's
one
of
those
things
that
we
don't
watch,
because
it's
a
thousand
page
document
we're
not
asking
for
what
we
didn't
have
and
we're
not
asking
for
a
bailout,
but
we're
asking
for
the
ability
to
restructure
our
debt,
like
every
single
city
and
every
single
state
across
the
country.
Has
the
ability
to
do
part
of
the
discussion
this
weekend
will
be
about
what
happens
at
the
Democratic
convention
here
and
the
Republican
convention.
A
In
Ohio,
both
states
that
have
over
400,000
Puerto
Ricans,
who
will
be
watching
and
making
a
difference,
both
states
who
will
be
critical
for
who
becomes
president
I.
Thank
my
council
colleagues
for
always
supporting
my
cause
and
when
I've
asked
for
their
support
and
sending
a
United
message
that
Puerto
Ricans
American
citizens
deserve
the
ability
to
manage
themselves.
A
This
is
proof,
as
its
debated
at
the
Supreme
Court,
that
Puerto
Rico
is
the
colony
and
this
this
on
this
illegal
relationship
with
the
United
States
has
to
be
dealt
with,
but
it
will
not
be
dealt
with
until
we
can
deal
with
this
financial
crisis.
Ironically,
we
have
we
passed
a
bill
in
Puerto,
Rico
or
the
legislature
in
Puerto
Rico
that
in
2022
it's
called
the
law
of
2022.
A
We've
asked
all
of
the
presidential
candidates
to
take
a
position
of
this
Trump
said
he
hated
Puerto
Ricans
because
they
were
the
worst
Mexicans
tells
you
where
he's
at
Bernie
Sanders
has
been
more
progressive,
and
yesterday,
in
my
45
seconds,
with
Hillary
Clinton
I
pleaded
for
Puerto
Rico.
I
will
do
that
this
weekend.